Day 13 (9.14.07) - McLaughlin to Minot ND (Photo's Added)

Logistics:

Miles Driven -
Weather - Sunny, mid 60's F

Narrative:

Well, it is about 1 AM (Central Time) and I finally updated the blog for 9/7/07 (a week ago) and uploaded the pictures for the 8th. At this rate, I seem to be falling behind faster then I can get caught up. Mom suggested we stop taking pictures (or blogging), but I'd rather just soldier on. I suspect as I get past the learning curve - or start getting high speed internet access more often, I'll be able to sort of keep up?

Thanks to those who have commented on our efforts so far! I will try to start taking more pictures that include one or both of us. I'm also trying to do a better job on keeping the text blogging up to date in the 'placeholder' entries - less stuff I'll have to try to remember once I get around to uploading photos.

Today we only had to drive about 9 miles after we left my sister Penny's until we got to the North Dakota border (it was 90 miles from Penny's to Bismark however).

We also stopped at Fort Yates, ND, where Penny used to work and knows a lot of the people.

The name "Standing Rock" comes from this rock. It is held in reverence by the Sioux. According to Dakota legend, it is the body of a young Indian woman with her child on her back. She was left in camp after refusing to move south with her tribe. When others were sent back to find her, she had turned to stone. They have placed the stone with a view overlooking the Missouri River.

We visited Sitting Bulls grave, which is also in Fort Yates.

As we drove farther north, we saw a sign for Huff historical site. This was an indian town really, with fortifications and about 1,000 people dating to about 1450 AD. All that's left are mounds and depressions, but they're pretty significant.

We passed a ranch that raises Bison, I counted at least a hundred head just with what I could see from the road, but there were more over the hill.

We stopped in Bismark for provisions (Lewis & Clark had to hunt or trade with the indians they met). For the most part, it looked like any other city anywhere - we went to a supermarket for groceries, Lowes to replace the electric heater that died (pioneers would have had to make their own replacements for broken parts), and a drug store to mask the symptoms of a cold I've acquired.

Mom wanted to head east on I94 and get farther east a little faster (we are running a bit behind where we'd like to be), but as I have used the Lewis & Clark Expedition as my inspirition, I couldn' t pass up the opportunity to visit the replica of Fort Mandan, so we headed North intead. We got there just in time to join the last tour of the day (had to skip the visitors center). This is an "A" shaped fort and quite well appointed. Each cabin had a fireplace, they had a blacksmith shop (one ax could be traded to the indians for 8 gallons of corn), and quite a few 'state of the art' instruments for the day.

Front Gate:

Captains Quarters:

Soldiers Quarters:

Blacksmith Shop:

We asked the local folks about the best route east from there (Washburn, ND), and they recommended going on to Minot, then taking Hwy 2 east. We found a nice RV camp in Minot (with Internet) and I paid my bills (I LOVE online banking, bill payment and email), then have been working on the blog. Mom will attend chuch in Minot tomorrow, then we'll head east again - hopefully making it to Minnesota by tomorrow night (but there are a couple more places I want to stop and see along the way in ND)...